Tales of Vesperia Review

Staring Yuri Lowell, Tales of Vesperia is the tenth title in the Tales Series released by Bandai Namco for Playstation 3 (Japan Only) and Xbox 360. Vesperia main themes is “Enforcing Ones’s Justice RPG”. Tales of Vesperia is the first game in the series to support high-definition. Vesperia takes place in the world of Terca Lumireis. The people in Terca Lumireis rely heavily in blastia, a device from ancient civilization used to manipulate element and create barrier to protect the city.

Yuri Lowell is the oldest main protagonist in Tales Series and has a mature, anti-hero personality. Yuri Lowell is a former Imperial Knights who lived in Imperial Capital Zaphias along with his dog Repede. Now live in the Lower Quarter of Imperial Capital, the story start when the blastia in Lower Quarter is stolen. Yuri leaves the Capital in order to pursue the thief but the journey eventually escalating into the journey to save the world.

The combat system is the best. Vesperia has a real time battle system so the battle is action packed. There are no random encounter since the enemy is shown both in field and dungeon. How player approach the enemy can change battle conditions, as an example surprise encounter will shuffle your party. The battles start with at most four characters. The AI controlled character is pretty nice and you can change their behaviour by setting it up in strategy menu. The addition of Fatal Strike, Burst Artes, and Overlimit also make the battles much more appealing. A certain combo chain allow you to execute Fatal Strike which instantly kill the enemy and when Overlimit gauge is full you can attack nonstop and activate Burst Artes. Unfortunately though I think it’s too easy to win a battle. The only thing that make it difficult is a secret mission in boss battle.

Beside the main storyline, there are lots of sidequest and mini game such as cooking, coliseum and postgame dungeons with quite a lot of optional bosses which keep you entertained. You can also watch skits and collect various costumes and fashion items. But all that sidequest require you to backtracking a lot so it may become quite irritating if you are lazy.

Tales of Vesperia world looks so vibrant and beautiful. The character designs, animation, and scenes are great. There are lots of dialogue in Vesperia and fortunately the translation and English voice acting are pretty good. Both the bgm and the opening theme is beautiful (Ring a Bell / Kane Wo Narashite by Bonnie Pink).

Overall Tales of Vesperia storyline and gameplay is similar to previous Tales Series. But the graphic, character designs, and music are beautiful. The combat system is interesting and easy to master but unfortunately the enemy is not challenging. It is a great game I really recommend it.